Jesse Jackson's Long, Misguided March

Michael W. Lynch | December 14, 2000

(Page 2 of 2)

But the most likely explanations don’t hinge on racial discrimination. This is something worth trumpeting, not denying.

In an election in which 900,000 black Floridians voted (that's 400,000 more than in 1996) and constituted 16 percent of the total electorate, charges of Selma, Dred Scott, and Plessy v. Ferguson are out of place. Before Jesse Jackson continues on his quest to foment racial strife in the name of racial justice, he ought to consider the words of Democratic Rep. Alcee L. Hastings who represents a congressional district in Florida where turnout was heavy. "Is that a racial thing?" asks Hastings, who is black, in regards to the Election Day chaos in Florida. "I don’t think so," he told the New York Times. "But is it something that had a cumulative effect and had an impact on the African American vote? I think that’s the case."

Bureaucratic incompetence is always troubling, and never more so when it affects voters in the act of casting their ballots. But that doesn't mean it's racially motivated. Jesse Jackson ought to keep this in mind on the stump as he continues his quest to divide America.